The Pygmalion Effect

The main idea about The Pygmalion Effect is that if you believe that someone is capable of achieving greatness, then that person will indeed achieve greatness.    71   .    

         72   . A professor makes a bet that he can teach a poor flower girl to speak and act like an upper-class lady, and is successful.

The Pygmalion Effect may occur all around us whether it is in the workforce, at schools or even at home. Through the Pygmalion Effect, supervisors can create better employees just by believing in them. This is even truer when working with underachievers.  73   .

If, for instance, you tell a new teacher at a grammar school―who has no previous experience with her new to be students―that a particular young student of hers is extremely bright and clever, the new teacher will automatically be more supportive, more encouraging, teach more challenging material, be patient and allow that student more time to answer questions, and provide extra feedback to that student. The student receiving all this attention and absorbing in the teacher’s belief learns more and is, as a result, better in school.    74   . The main concern is that this new teacher entirely believes that this student is bright and clever.   75    . The manager must purely believe that his or her workers are high achievers, and the results the manager will receive are nothing less.

 

A. All it takes is really believing.

B. Whether the child is bright or not before hand does not necessarily matter.

C. In other words, believing in potential simply creates potential.

D. The person believed in, being believed, becomes the person whom they are believed to be.

E. The effect is named after George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion.

F. The Pygmalion Effect refers to situations in which students perform better than other students.

G. This is also the case for managers and workers.

  Walking across the campus of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University one delightful spring day, I came upon a table filled with young people chatting and enjoying the fine weather. Several had identical blue T-shirts with “Trilogy @ CMU” written across them―Trilogy being an Austin, Texasbased software company with a reputation of recruiting(招聘) our top students. I walked over to the table. “Are you guys here to recruit?” I asked. “No, absolutely not,” they replied firmly. “We’re not recruiters. We’re just hanging out, playing a little frisbee with our friends.” How interesting, I thought. They’ve come to campus on a workday, all the way from Austin, just to hang out with some new friends.

   As I later learned, they were gifted students who had inked the highest-paying deal in the history of their departments.

   I asked one young man why he was going to a smaller city in Taxas. The company is excellent, he told me. There are also terrific people and the work is challenging. Though he had several good job offers from Pittsburgh’s high-tech firms and knew the city well, he said he felt the city lacked the life-styles options, cultural diversity, and tolerant attitude that would make it attractive to him. As he summed it up: “How would I fit in here?”

  What a change from my own college days, just a little more than 20 years ago, when students would put on their dressiest clothes and carefully hide any counterculture tendencies to prove that they could fit in with the company. Today, apparently, it’s the company trying to fit in with the students.

  These young men and their lifestyles represent a lively new force in the enonomy and life of America. They are members of what I call the creative class: a fast-growing, highly educated, and well-paid part of the workforce on whose efforts corporate profits and economic growth increasingly depend. They do not consciously think of themselves as a class. Yet they share a common belief that values creativity, individuality, difference, and advantage.

 

68. Why were the young people in the university campus?

A. To get recruited in Pittsburgh.           

B. To celebrate their successful recruitment.

C. To relax themselves away from work.       

D. To meet their old school mates.

69. Which of he following best describes the author’s attitude towards the young people?

  A. Criticizing.            B. Disgusting.        C. Approving.        D. Disappointing.

70. What can you infer from the passage?

  A. The young people prefer to work in a small quiet city.

  B. The high pay is the main attraction to the young people.

  C. Pittsburgh has many advantages over Austin.

  D. Pittsburgh doesn’t have enough attractions to the young people.

It is often claimed that nuclear energy is something we cannot do without. We live in a consumer society, where there is a huge demand for commercial products of all kinds. Moreover, an increase in industrial production is considered to be one solution to the problem of mass unemployment. Such an increase needs an abundant and cheap energy supply. Many people believe that nuclear energy is endless and economical. There are a number of other advantages in the use of nuclear energy. Firstly, nuclear power, except for accidents, is clean. A further advantage is that a nuclear power station can be run by relatively few technical and managing staff. The nuclear power station represents a large step in our scientific research and, whatever the anti-nuclear group says, it is wrong to expect a return to more primitive sources of fuel.

However, those who disagree with nuclear energy point out that nuclear power stations bring a direct threat not only to the environment but also to the human race. Furthermore, it is doubtful whether finally nuclear power is a cheap source of energy. There have, for example, been very costly accidents in America and Russia. The possibility of increases in the cost of uranium (铀) and the cost to ensure its safety could price nuclear power out of the market. In the long run, environmentalists argue, nuclear energy may bring about the destruction of the human race. Thus, if we wish to survive, we cannot afford nuclear energy. Though nuclear energy programmes are expanding, which assumes a continual growth in industrial production and consumer demands. It is doubtful whether this growth will or can continue.

Having weighed up the arguments on both sides, it seems there are good economic and environmental reasons for sources of energy other than nuclear power.

 

64. According to the passage, an increase in industrial production can          .

A. ensure the safety of nuclear power

B. overcome the resource crisis

C. solve the pollution problem

D. offer more working opportunities

65. According to the anti-nuclear group, nuclear energy has the following disadvantages EXCEPT that          .

A. it is a limited source of energy

B. it is harmful to the environment

C. it is a danger to the human race        

D. it is an expensive source of energy

66. Some people claim that nuclear energy is necessary because          .

A. it can meet the growing demand of energy in an industrially developing society

B. it represents a big step forward in our scientific development

C. it provides the best solution to mass unemployment

D. it’s easy to run a nuclear power station

67. The function of the last sentence is to          .

A. seek help from the public

B. change previously expressed thoughts

C. reflect the writer’s attitude

D. show the disadvantages of nuclear power

I entered high school having read hundreds of books. But I was not a good reader. Merely bookish, I lacked a point of view when I read. Rather, I read in order to get a point of view. I searched books for good expressions and sayings, pieces of information, ideas, themes―anything to enrich my thought and make me feel educated. When one of my teachers suggested to his sleepy tenth-grade English class that a person could not have a “complicated idea” until he had read at least two thousand books, I heard the words without recognizing either its irony or its very complicated truth. I merely determined to make a list of all the books I had ever read. Strict with myself, I included only once a title I might have read several times. (How, after all, could one read a book more then once?) And I included only those books over a hundred pages in length. (Could anything shorter be a book?)

  There was yet another high school list I made. One day I came across a newspaper article about an English professor at a nearby state college. The article had a list of the “hundred most important books of Western Civilization”. “More than anything else in my life”. The professor told the reporter with finality(坚定), “These books have made me all that I am.” That was the kind of words I couldn’t ignore. I kept the list for the several months it took me to read all of the titles. Most books, of course, I hardly understood. While reading Plato’s The Republic, for example, I needed to keep looking at the introduction of the book to remind myself what the text was about. However, with the special patience and superstition (迷信) of a schoolboy, I looked at every word of the text. And by the time I reached the last word, I persuaded myself that I had read The Republic, and seriously crossed Plato off my list.

 

56. On hearing the teacher’s suggestion of reading, the writer thought ________.

  A. one must read as many books as possible

  B. a student should not have a complicated idea

  C. it was impossible for one to read two thousand books

  D. students ought to make a list of the books they had read

57. While at high school, the writer _______.

  A. had plans for reading                         B. learned to educate himself

  C. only read books over 100 pages          D. read only one book several times

58. The writer’s purpose in mentioning The Republic is to ________.

  A. explain why it was included in the list

  B. describe why he seriously crossed it off the list

  C. show that he read the books blindly though they were hard to understand

  D. prove that he understood most of it because he had looked at every word

59. The writer provides two book lists to ________.

  A. show how he developed his point of view

  B. tell his reading experience at high school

  C. introduce the two persons’ reading methods

  D. explain that he read many books at high school

Nancy had got a secretary’s job in a big company to work in the sales department. Monday was the first day that she went to work, so she was very   36  . She got up very early and arrived at the   37   at twenty to eight. She   38   the door open and found nobody there. “I am the   39   to arrive.” She thought and came to her desk. She was surprised to   40   a large bunch of flowers on it. They were fresh. She   41   the flowers from the desk and smelled them. “Oh, how lovely!” Nancy      42   joyfully. She then looked round for a   43   to put them in. “Somebody has sent me flowers the   44   first day!” She thought happily. “But who could it be?” She began to wonder.

The day passed very   45   and Nancy did everything with great interest and   46  . For the following days of the week, the first thing Nancy did was to change water for the flowers. And then she   47   herself in her work.

Then came another Monday. When she came near her desk she was overjoyed to see a(n) 48  bunch of flowers there. She quickly put them in the vase, replacing the old ones.

The same thing happened again the next Monday. Nancy felt it   49   and this time she began to think of ways to find out the   50  . On Tuesday afternoon, she was sent to   51   a plan to the general manager’s office. She had to stay for a while at his secretary’s desk waiting for his   52  . She happened to see on the desk a big note book   53  “Records of manager’s meetings”, and glanced at the   54   pages. Suddenly her eyes fell on these words: “In order to keep the secretaries  55  , the company has decided that every Monday morning a bunch of fresh flowers should be sent to each secretary’s desk.”

Later, she was told that their manager was a business management psychologist.

 

36. A. depressed

B. encouraged

C. excited 

D. surprised

37. A. office

B. workshop

C. classroom

D. bookshop

38. A. forced

B. pushed

C. turned

D. knocked

39. A. last

B. second

C. third

D. first

40. A. uncover

B. smell

C. find

D. pick

41. A. packed up

B. threw away

C. stared at

D. took up

42. A. cried

B. laughed

C. wept

D. replied

43. A. jar

B. box

C. bottle

D. vase

44. A. happy

B. very

C. funny

D. quite

45. A. slowly

B. normally

C. quickly

D. hardly

46. A. wisdom

B. bravery

C. sadness

D. enthusiasm

47. A. buried

B. dressed

C. devoted

D. seated

48. A. old

B. red

C. blue

D. new

49. A. special

B. angry

C. strange

D. difficult

50. A. sender

B. receiver

C. manager

D. waiter

51. A. send for

B. hand out

C. try out

D. hand in

52. A. orders

B. instructions

C. gifts

D. receipts

53. A. marked

B. written

C. printed

D. signed

54. A. closed

B. damaged

C. pinned

D. half-opened

55. A. at home

B. on time

C. in high spirites

D. in low spirits

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